We Three (Billion?) Kings Matthew 2:1-12 December 19, 2004
Someone speculated what the first Christmas might have been like if Wise Women had come from the east instead of Wise Men.
First of all, they would have asked for directions and made it to Bethlehem on time. Second, they would have helped with the delivery, cleaned up the stable, and brought some practical gifts like a casserole so the family would have something to eat.
The Bible records the account of wise men who visit the Christ child in Matthew chapter 2. But there’s much about them we don’t know.
• Matthew tells us that they came from the East but we don’t know exactly which country was their home. It could have been Persia, which is modern day Iran or Babylon which is modern day Iraq.
• We sing “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” But they weren’t kings at all. The Bible says they were “Magi.” Magi were astrologers and interpreters of dreams. They were skilled in astrology and astronomy, and were likely involved in various occult practices, including sorcery. They were men of great wisdom and magical power like Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings.”
• Who were these Magi? Tradition tells us their names were Melchior, Balthasar and Kaspar. But again there is no certainty behind this tradition. It wasn’t until 600 years after Jesus’ birth that these names first appeared in any writings.
• We don’t even know that there were three of them who came. The Bible doesn’t give us that number but we have come to assume there were three because three gifts are mentioned: gold, frankincense and myrrh. There could have been three Magi, or four or five. The good news is that if your kid breaks one of the kings in your nativity set you’re still OK with two.
• What was the star they followed? Some suggest it was a spectacular alignment of Jupiter and Saturn that occurred in 6 B.C. Others say it was probably a super nova, or maybe even Halley’s Comet, which would have appeared in 12 B.C. It may have been a supernatural phenomenon as well.
• We are not even clear about when they came. The wise men are pictured in ancient paintings kneeling before the baby in the manger. But Matthew’s account tells they came to the house and saw the child with his mother Mary. When Herod decides to do what he can to exterminate this child who is a threat to his throne, he gives orders to kill all the male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem who are two years old and under. Either he is being overly zealous (not unlikely in this fiend’s case), or up to two years may have transpired. We don’t know for sure.
There are many things we don’t know, but there are a many things we do know. I want to mention just three.
• These men were Gentiles
• They came to worship Jesus
• They came with expensive gifts
They were Gentiles. They were idol-worshiping pagans. And yet they may have been familiar with the Jewish prophecies because of their contact with the descendents of the Jews who had been carried away to captivity in Babylon 600 years before. Perhaps they had even read the prophecy of Balaam in Numbers 24:17: "A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel."
A Gentile, you recall, is the term a Jewish person used to describe a foreigner. But it meant more than foreigner. A Gentile was an outsider. No good Jew would associate with one. When they spoke of a gentile they usually added the word "dog." They were unbelievers, heathens. That is what is so unusual about this Gospel story. It is the Magi (Gentiles not Jews)who come to Jerusalem, the religious center and political capitol, asking, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
They came to worship him. The Jews had been praying for a Messiah for decades; prophets had foretold his coming for centuries. Yet the first ones to worship the Jewish messiah when he arrives are not Jewish priests; they are pagan sorcerers. You can’t say they didn’t know either. When Herod asks the chief priests and teachers of the law where the Messiah is to be born, they quote directly from the prophet Micah.
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”
Matthew is demonstrating how Jesus and Jesus alone fulfilled the prophecies that were spoken about him. He is authenticating Jesus as the Messiah. But he is also illustrating how the religious are often the most oblivious and most apathetic when God moves into the neighborhood. The Wise Men had come 1,200 or more miles west to worship the King of kings. Yet the Jewish priests in Jerusalem wouldn’t go 6 miles south to Bethlehem to see him for themselves.
This warning stands for the Church today, especially the church of the West where two-thirds of Christians can’t be bothered to come to church to worship the Savior of the world. The irony is that while the Gospel has become ho hum, interest in the supernatural is steadily increasing. The evidence is in soaring sales of books like the Harry Potter series, and in various television series that highlight the role of angels. And, in a more pernicious form, we see evidence in the growing interest in witchcraft and the occult.
The non believer, the outsider, the Gentile of our day has a voracious appetite for the things of God. They know something is missing in their life that the natural world cannot supply. But only rarely does it occur to them to search for the supernatural, that missing piece, in the church. “Wise Men still seek him,” the saying goes. But you have to wonder if the Magi came today, would they seek him in the church?
These ancient Magi followed the star until it stopped over the place where the child was. “When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”
These Gentiles bowed down and worshipped Jesus. John Wesley, the man who founded the Methodist church, writes about this. He calls the Wise Men the first fruits of the Gentiles.
Last week I talked about first fruits and explained that implicit in the concept of the first fruit offering is a portent, a promise, a guarantee of more of the same to come. As the first fruit of the resurrection, Jesus is our guarantee that life does not end when our bodies expire; that just as he was raised so shall we who truly worship him be raised (I Corinthians 15:20-22).
It is no coincidence that Matthew’s Gospel has references to Gentiles at the very beginning and at the very end—like bookends to the life of Jesus—bookends that tell us Jesus isn’t just for the insider.
We’re already familiar with how Matthew begins through our study today. Do you remember how it ends? Jesus is with his disciples after his resurrection and is handing them the baton with the charge to continue his mission. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” Jesus said. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
You are familiar with the words but perhaps you missed the connection to the Gentiles here because the word “nations” is used instead. Jesus is telling them that the Gospel needs to be sown outside of Israel among the nations. And he is reminding them about the Magi, the first fruits that tell us there will be a rich harvest from among the nations far away.
The great Anglican Bishop, J. C. Ryle, said of these first seekers of truth, “We read of no greater faith than this in all the Bible. It is a faith that deserves to be placed side by side with that of the penitent thief. The thief saw one dying the death of a malefactor and yet prayed to him and called him ‘Lord.’ The wise men saw a newborn babe on the lap of a poor woman, and yet they worshipped him and confessed that he was the Christ.”
This is the kind of faith that is waiting to be ignited among the nations if we are willing to dedicate ourselves to sharing the Good News. Some of you wonder why I am so passionate about world missions. The simple answer is because Jesus was passionate about world missions.
Have you ever stopped to consider that the incarnation was a mission trip? Jesus thought our wellbeing was important enough that he left his home turf on high to come, not just to a foreign land, but in a foreign form. Missionaries to another country will often adopt native dress and customs to be more effective. In order to accomplish his mission of saving the world from the disease of sin, God needed more than a change of clothes. God, who is Spirit, “became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
We can’t begin to contemplate what risk, what sacrifice, what condescension this entailed. What God did has no equivalent. But you get a hint of what it would be like if you became an amoeba and entered the anatomy of other human beings in order to heal cancer, knowing that the very ones you came to heal would do their level best to kill you.
But God loved us so much it was worth the risk. “For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
And somehow these Magi knew that. They worshipped him, but that’s not all. They brought him expensive gifts. This is the third thing we know for certain. Read verse eleven again. “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”
Worship always involves giving. And notice these gifts were not cheap. You don’t give garage sale finds to the King of kings. King David didn’t need anyone to tell him this. When he was building an altar to worship God, both the property for the altar area and the oxen for the sacrifice were offered to him free. But King David refused. "No,” he said, “I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing" (2 Samuel 24:24). Worship always involves giving something of value in recognition that something of infinitely greater value has been received.
Much has been written of the symbolism of the gifts: gold for a king, incense used by the priest and myrrh, the ointment that was used for the burial for the dead. Mothers, can you imagine being at your first baby shower and getting these gifts for your newborn? The gold will pay for the hospital bills and get the kid through college. The incense will come in handy when you’re changing those stinky diapers. But embalming fluid? How rude! What did Mary think?
When these Gentiles bearing gifts first arrived she must have thought back to what happened when she brought Jesus to the temple to be circumcised. How Simeon cradled the baby in his arms and said, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
But I imagine that it wasn’t until she saw the myrrh that she remembered the rest of what Simeon said, “Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:28-35)
And a sword will pierce your own soul too… as you see your first born mocked, whipped, and crucified.
We bring our gifts to the manger today. Because worship always involves giving—giving of our lives, giving of our treasure, giving because we can see even better than the Magi what a sacrifice this gift was and what a difference it made. We have been redeemed by his. We have been given the true riches. Our sins are washed away; we have a new life here on earth and a home in a heaven, free of charge.
Many people say the Christmas gift giving tradition started with the Wise Men. I say it started before that. It started with a gift from our Father in heaven, the gift of a baby, a baby who was born to die so that the world which was dying could live.
